As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As processors, graphics cards, random access memory (RAM) and other components in information handling systems have increased in clock speed and power consumption, the amount of heat produced by such components as a side-effect of normal operation has also increased. Often, the temperatures of these components need to be kept within a reasonable range to prevent overheating, instability, malfunction and damage leading to a shortened component lifespan. Accordingly, air movers (e.g., cooling fans and blowers) have often been used in information handling systems to cool information handling systems and their components.
In most cases the goal of thermal controls is to maintain component temperature of an information handling resource below a specific threshold. This threshold is typically based on reliability, safety, or throughput requirements of the information handling resource. However, there are cases where operating an information handling resource below a certain temperature can negatively impact performance. For example, in some processors, below a certain temperature, a stack up of voltage tolerances in excess of their limits may occur and result in the processor operating below its maximum frequency.
According, it may be beneficial to operate certain information handling resources closer to their temperature limits to achieve better power efficiency, but oftentimes one or more other information handling resources in an information handling system may drive fan speeds which may result in overcooling of other components. At the same time, it may be desired to prevent an information handling resource from exceeding its limits to intentionally heat or throttle another information handling resource as this may prove counterproductive.